Meatless Monday is a global movement, a way of life. It’s not a campaign to turn everyone in the world vegetarian or vegan; in fact, many involved are meat-lovers. Eating less meat has been proven to reduce the risk of disease, curb obesity and has important environmental impacts, too. Will you join us in giving up meat, just for one day a week?

Have you tried farro yet? I’m a bit obsessed with the nutty whole grain. It’s a great alternative to rice or pasta and is often interchangeable with wheat berries in recipes. While you can certainly add a scoop to your salad or soup, I like to use the toothsome grain as the base of a recipe.

What can you add to farro? Pretty much anything. Throw in lots of crispy veggies and toss with a dijon vinaigrette to makeGiada’s Mediterranean Farro Salad. Serve with a simple green salad for dinner tonight and save leftovers for a light lunch tomorrow. In fact, I think it tastes even better the next day since the flavors have more time to mix and marry in the fridge.

This farro salad is very versatile. Swap in whatever vegetables you like (anything with a crunch will work nicely). Add in fresh herbs, use a different vinegar or hold off on the olives. You really can’t go wrong.

Since I discovered farro a few years ago, it’s become a weekly lunch staple. Because it’s easy to prepare and can be made in large batches, I normally make a full bag of farro at the beginning of the week so I can take it to work for lunch every day. This week I decided to use something other than olive oil in my go-to farro salad, so I picked up Greek yogurt. To complete the Mediterranean-inspired taste, I also shopped for cucumbers, lemons, garlic, dill and feta cheese.

Time was not on my side this last week. I know you know the feeling — work meetings, cat feedings, domestic chores and professional bores (c’mon, that was pretty good, right?). Point is, when it came to making dinner, it was the last thing I had time to commit to.

While tearing through the aisles of my local supermarket, I noticed one amazing improvement: They had completely remodeled the salad bar! I’m not talking a new variation on ranch dressing or shredded carrots. I’m talking a complete overhaul (much like the ones I see in other bigger cities when I’m traveling with production crews). They had added new, lighter dressings (like the lemon one I used here), more vegetable variety and — best of all — precooked grains. While the pick of this week was wheat berries, they told me they’re also cycling in quinoa, farro, bulgur and barley. What a hearty and delicious timesaver!

Pairing a quick-cooking piece of protein like a pork tenderloin with the helping hand of fresh, natural and already prepared ingredients from the salad bar is definitely an ace in the hole I won’t soon forget. Just goes to show you that it pays off to explore your local store a bit — they’re always adding in something new.

Meatless Monday is a global movement, a way of life. It’s not a campaign to turn everyone in the world vegetarian or vegan; in fact, many involved are meat-lovers. Eating less meat has been proven to reduce the risk of disease, curb obesity and has important environmental impacts, too. Will you join us in giving up meat, just for one day a week?

Farro is a whole grain similar to wheat berries; it’s sometimes called emmer (especially in Italy or in Italian import stores). It’s a flavorful little grain with a nutty, chewy texture. You can throw cooked farro into a green salad or use it in soups in place of pasta. Bonus: it freezes well so you can cook a whole bunch and freeze it in freezer bags for when you don’t have time to wait for it to cook. You can find farro in Italian stores, health food stores and in many grocery stores; I like to buy it in the bulk bins at the health food store because it’s cheaper that way.

Debi and Gabriele’s Caprese Di Farro salad is a good introduction to this grain; it’s foolproof so even if it’s your first time cooking with farro, you can’t really mess it up. “Caprese” means “in the style of Capri,” an Italian region best known for the mozzarella-basil-tomato combination everyone loves. Be sure to use real, high-quality fresh mozzarella cheese in this simple salad; the processed kind isn’t the same.